Because your web site is the primary liaison between you and your customers in a virtual corporation, you must put as much time and work into it as you would constructing a brick-and-mortar store or office. Your web site is a showcase for your company, your products and your services. A poor web site will turn away customers faster than a poorly laid out store or office. Customers and clients arriving at a physical location are more reluctant to go elsewhere because they would have to get back into their cars and drive there. On the internet, finding another company to do business with is just a few clicks away.
Market research shows that web sites have between three and ten seconds to entice visitors to stay. Therefore, first impressions count, big-time. There are two stages to making a successful business web site: first, the design and content placement; next, attracting visitors. Each stage has several important steps. You can choose to invest either time or money, or a little bit of both, in creating a dynamic web site that will support your virtual corporation.
Naming Your Domain
Often your domain name will be the first thing people discover about your virtual corporation, whether through advertising, word-of-mouth, or search engine results. The domain name is whatever comes between the www and the .com in your web address: for example, in www.google.com the domain name is Google; and in www.big-money-from-mink-oil-extract.com the domain name is big-money-from-mink-oil-extract. A domain name is located in the address bar of a web browser, and may be different from the title of your web page, which is the text that appears at the top of your window in the left-hand corner of the uppermost bar—appropriately called the title bar.
You should give careful consideration to your domain name before you register it with a web host. A domain name should be easy to remember, easy to spell, and use as few characters such as dashes and underscores as possible. If customers can remember your domain name and type it into their address bar without having to go through a search engine, they will be more likely to visit your site right away. Search engines produce multiple results, and if potential customers have to search for your site every time, they may find another web site they like better.
If you can use the name of your company as your domain name, that’s great. However, if you’ve decided to name your company Google or Yahoo, you’re probably out of luck as far as domain availability. When you’re choosing a domain name, list several of your top choices and include breaking characters (yes, you should still avoid them as much as possible, but if your company’s name is Flowers Forever and you have to choose between flowers-forever and something entirely irrelevant to your business, by all means use dashes!). You can then go to www.DomainAbbey.com or another domain search site to find out if your choice of domain names is available. If the .com name you want is taken, don’t forget to check for availability in other web extensions like .biz, .net, .cc, .org and .info.
Once you’ve determined what your domain name will be, it’s a good idea to check on other web sites with similar domain names before you register yours. For example, if you choose flowers-forever and then discover the web site www.flowersforever.com offers exactly the same products and services you plan to offer, you may want to consider something different. If there are existing web
sites with only a character’s difference between them offering the same thing, customers may end up at that other site and stay there. Try reversing the words if it still makes sense (forever-flowers), or coming up with a creative domain name that is not the name of your company but still reveals what your business does (FlowerArrangements or BestFreshFlowers).
You can register your domain name through any of a number of companies that provide domain name reservation. Most of these are free services. However, it will save you a step—and possibly some trouble—if you register directly through the web site host you plan to use like www.DomainAbbey.com
Selecting a Web Host: The Good, The Bad and The Ugly
With thousands of web hosting companies to choose from, you have plenty of opportunity to select the one that’s right for your business. It is always a good idea to research web host companies before signing on with one, especially one that requires a certain term of service.
Though there are a large number of free web hosting services, there are many reasons to select a paid hosting company. In order to be a professional and successful virtual corporation, you need your own domain name. If you use a free service, your domain name will be something like
“www.AnotherCompany.com/YourCompany”
This is difficult to remember, and it’s a big-time hint to savvy internet users that you’re running a small-time company. Also, free web hosts don’t provide you with your own e-mail addresses. An e-mail address of flowersforever@yahoo.com is another tip-off that you’re the sole employee of your business. Fortunately, you can find a good web host for a low price. A basic package for web hosting will generally run you between $5 and $10 a month far less than the cost of your internet connection.
Other than the ability to have your own domain name, there are several things you should consider when selecting a web host.
• Free e-mail addresses: you@yourdomain.com. Paid web hosting services generally provide you with a certain number of e-mail addresses that match your domain name. You can configure them to be sent to an offline e-mail program such as Eudora or Outlook Express, or to any web-based e-mail account like @yahoo.com or @msn.com. You can also distribute free e-mail addresses to any employees or contractors you hire, and configure them to be sent to their primary e-mail address. As mentioned before, having multiple e-mail addresses helps you to create virtual “departments” that make your company look bigger and more competent.
• Storage space. Web pages you create are stored on a file server maintained by your web host company. You should ensure your web host provides you with sufficient storage space for your files. If you plan to have several dozen (or several hundred) pages with product pictures or other multiple images, you will need more storage space than if you run a consulting service or other business that relies on text-based information.
• Bandwidth. Though not as much of a problem as it once was, you should make sure your web host provides enough bandwidth to keep your web site running smoothly. What is bandwidth? Technically, it is the amount of information that can be sent over a network connection in a given period of time. In plain English, it is whether or not your web site traffic will exceed the limits of the web host’s server. If you have limited bandwidth, at some points your site may become unavailable for viewing. Customers trying to visit your site will view either a generic Error 404 Page Not Found message, or a customized message from the web hosting company stating that your site has exceeded its bandwidth allowance for the day, and they should try again tomorrow. Most will not. If your site is graphics-heavy, you should look for a web host that offers a higher bandwidth allowance (sometimes referred to as “data transfer allowance”).
• Design options. Unless you are already a graphic designer or a computer programmer, you probably don’t know enough HTML coding to build a web site from scratch. Many web hosts offer customizable page templates or easy-to-use drag-and-drop design programs for site building. Templates are a great way to create a professional-looking web site with a minimal amount of fuss. If you plan to use an application like Microsoft FrontPage or Macromedia Dreamweaver to create your pages, you don’t need this option. However, you will need an FTP (file transfer protocol) program to upload the pages to the hosting server.
• Term contracts and discounts. Some web hosts require that you sign a contract for a certain term of service with them, usually 12 or 24 months. Others offer service on a month-to-month basis. It is better to find a host without a contract; that way, if you are dissatisfied with the service you can switch web host providers (and keep your domain name) without having to pay a cancellation fee. Also, many web hosts offer discounts for long-term customers or those who pay for several months of service up front. A few offer bundled packages, such as a web site and a shopping cart system for one lower combined price.
• Customer service and technical support. Just as you plan to provide outstanding customer service for your clients, your web host company should provide outstanding customer service for you. Be sure the company lists a phone number on their main web site, and has 24/7 technical support available, either by phone or live web chat. Because your virtual corporation exists mainly in cyberspace, you will more than likely need technical support at some point—and you don’t want to have
to wait until “the next business day” to find out why your site is suddenly displaying Japanese characters or empty boxes with little red X’s where your images used to be.
• Expandability. As your business expands, your web site should have the ability to grow with it. A good web host will offer the option to upgrade your hosting package to include more storage, bandwidth and features as you need it. If you find that your company has outgrown your current host’s capacity, it can be a nightmare trying to switch your domain name to another providers and transfer all of your files to another server. You can eliminate this potential for disaster by ensuring the web host you choose is flexible and reliable.
• Add-ons and additional services. Would your customers be interested in knowing their local weather and news headlines when they visit your site? How about taking a fun poll and seeing instant results? Or the ability to listen to audio clips? Many web hosting companies offer a variety of fun, free add-ons to make your site a great place to visit. You can get free traffic counters, site-specific search boxes, interactive forms, and even mini-games that display right on your site. Some web hosts also offer additional services such as web tracking (so you can find out how many people visited your site and how they found it), shopping cart services (which automates your purchasing process for you without relying on a third-party payment system) and more.
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